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The Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg (German: Herzogtum Sachsen-Lauenburg, Danish: Hertugdømmet Sachsen-Lauenborg), was a reichsfrei duchy that existed from 1296 to 1803 and again from 1814 to 1876 in the extreme southeast region of what is now Schleswig-Holstein. Its territorial centre was in the modern district of Herzogtum Lauenburg and originally its eponymous capital was Lauenburg upon Elbe, though the capital moved to Ratzeburg in 1619.
In addition to the core territories in the modern district of Lauenburg, other territories, mostly south of the river Elbe, occasionally belonged to the duchy:
In 1203, King Valdemar II of Denmark conquered the area later composing Saxe-Lauenburg, but it reverted to Albert I, Duke of Saxony in 1227. In 1260, Albert I's sons Albert II and John I succeeded their father. In 1269, 1272 and 1282, the brothers gradually divided their governing competences within the three territorially unconnected Saxon areas along the Elbe river (one called Land of Hadeln, another around Lauenburg upon Elbe and the third around Wittenberg upon Elbe), thus preparing a partition.
After John I's resignation, Albert II ruled with his minor nephews Albert III, Eric I and John II, who by 1296 definitely partitioned Saxony, providing Saxe-Lauenburg for the brothers and Saxe-Wittenberg for their uncle Albert II. The last document mentioning the brothers and their uncle Albert II as Saxon fellow dukes dates back to 1295. A deed of 20 September 1296 mentions the Vierlande, Sadelbande (Land of Lauenburg), the Land of Ratzeburg, the Land of Darzing (later Amt Neuhaus), and the Land of Hadeln as the separate territory of the brothers.
By 1303, the three jointly ruling brothers had partitioned Saxe-Lauenburg into three shares. However, Albert III died in 1308, and the surviving brothers established, in a territorial realignment in 1321, the Lauenburg Elder Line, with John II ruling Saxe-Bergedorf-Mölln, seated in Bergedorf, and the Lauenburg Younger Line, with Eric I ruling Saxe-Ratzeburg-Lauenburg, seated in Lauenburg upon Elbe. John II, the eldest brother, wielded the electoral privilege for the Lauenburg Ascanians, but was rivalled by their cousin Rudolph I of Saxe-Wittenberg.
In 1314, the dispute escalated into the election of two hostile German kings, the Habsburg Frederick III, the Fair, and his Wittelsbach cousin Louis IV, the Bavarian. Louis received five of the seven votes, to wit John II, Archbishop-Elector Baldwin of Trier, the legitimate King-Elector John of Bohemia, Duke John II of Saxe-Lauenburg using his claim as the Saxon prince-elector, Archbishop-Elector Peter of Mainz, and Prince-Elector Waldemar of Brandenburg.
Frederick the Fair received four of the seven votes in the same election, with the deposed King-Elector Henry of Bohemia illegitimately assuming electoral power, Archbishop-Elector Henry II of Cologne, Louis's brother Prince-Elector Rudolph I of the Electorate of the Palatinate, and Duke Rudolph I of Saxe-Wittenberg, claiming the Saxon prince-electoral power. However, only Louis the Bavarian finally asserted himself as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The Golden Bull of 1356, however, conclusively named the dukes of Saxe-Wittenberg as electors.
In 1370, John II's fourth successor Eric III of Saxe-Bergedorf-Mölln pawned the Herrschaft of Bergedorf, the Vierlande, half the Saxon Wood, and Geesthacht to Lübeck in return for a credit of 16,262.5 Lübeck marks. This acquisition included much of the trade route between Hamburg and Lübeck, thus providing a safe passage for freight between the cities. Eric III only retained a life tenancy.
The city of Lübeck and Eric III had stipulated that, upon his death, Lübeck would be entitled to take possession of the pawned areas until his successors repaid the credit and simultaneously exercised the repurchase of Mölln (contracted in 1359), altogether amounting to the then enormous sum of 26,000 Lübeck Marks.
In 1401, Eric III died without issue. The Lauenburg Elder Line was thus extinct in the male line and Eric III was succeeded by his second cousin Eric IV of Saxe-Ratzeburg-Lauenburg of the Younger Line. In the same year, Eric IV, supported by his sons Eric (later ruling as Eric V) and John, forcefully captured the pawned areas, without making any repayment, before Lübeck could take possession of them. Lübeck acquiesced for the time being.
In 1420, Eric V attacked Prince-Elector Frederick I of Brandenburg, and Lübeck allied with Hamburg in support of Brandenburg. Armies of both cities opened a second front and conquered Bergedorf, Riepenburg castle and the Esslingen river toll station (today's Zollenspieker Ferry). This forced Eric V to agree with Hamburg's burgomaster Hein Hoyer and Burgomaster Jordan Pleskow of Lübeck to the Treaty of Perleberg on 23 August 1420, which stipulated that all the pawned areas, which Eric IV, Eric V and John IV had violently taken in 1401, were to be irrevocably ceded to the cities of Hamburg and Lübeck, becoming their bi-urban condominium of Bergedorf (Beiderstädtischer Besitz).
From the 14th century, Saxe-Lauenburg termed itself as Lower Saxony (German: Niedersachsen). However, Saxony as a naming for the area comprising the older Duchy of Saxony in its borders before 1180 still prevailed. So, when the Holy Roman Empire established the Imperial Circles in 1500 as tax levying and army recruitment districts, the circle comprising Saxe-Lauenburg and all its neighbours became designated as Saxon Circle, while the Wettin-ruled Saxon electorate and duchies at that time formed the Upper Saxon Circle. The naming of Lower Saxony became more colloquial and the Saxon Circle was later renamed the Lower Saxon Circle. In 1659, Duke Julius Henry decreed in his general disposition (guidelines for his government) "to also esteem the woodlands as heart and dwell [of revenues] of the Principality of Lower Saxony."
The people of Hadeln, represented by their estates of the realm, adopted the Lutheran Reformation in 1525 and Duke Magnus I confirmed Hadeln's Lutheran Church Order in 1526, establishing Hadeln's separate ecclesiastical body existing until 1885. Magnus did not promote the spreading of Lutheranism in the rest of his duchy. Lutheran preachers, most likely from the southerly adjacent Principality of Lunenburg (Lutheran since 1529), held the first Lutheran preaches; at the northern entrance of St. Mary Magdalene Church in Lauenburg upon Elbe, one is recalled for Saint John's Eve in 1531. Tacitly, the congregations appointed Lutheran preachers so that the visitations of 1564 and 1566, ordered by Duke Francis I, Magnus I's son, on the instigation of the Ritter-und-Landschaft, saw Lutheran preachers in many parishes. In 1566, Francis I appointed the Superintendent Franciscus Baringius as the first spiritual leader of the church in the duchy, not including Hadeln.
Francis I conducted a thrifty reign and resigned in favour of his eldest son Magnus II once having exploited all his means in 1571. Magnus II promised to redeem the pawned ducal demesnes with funds he gained as a Swedish military commander and by his marriage to Princess Sophia of Sweden. However, Magnus did not redeem pawns but further alienated ducal possessions, which ignited a conflict between Magnus and his father and brothers Francis (II) and Maurice as well as the estates of the duchy, further escalating due to Magnus' violent temperament.
In 1573, Francis I deposed Magnus and reascended to the throne while Magnus fled to Sweden. The following year, Magnus hired troops in order to retake Saxe-Lauenburg via force. Francis II, an experienced military commander in imperial service, and Duke Adolphus of Schleswig and Holstein at Gottorp, then Lower Saxon Circle Colonel (Kreisobrist), helped Francis I to defeat Magnus. In return Saxe-Lauenburg ceded the bailiwick of Steinhorst to Gottorp in 1575. Francis II again helped his father to inhibit Magnus' second military attempt to overthrow his father in 1578. Francis I then made Francis II his vicegerent actually governing the duchy.
Shortly before his death in 1581 (and after consultations with his son Prince-Archbishop Henry of Bremen and Emperor Rudolph II, but unconcerted with his other sons Magnus and Maurice), Francis I made his third son, Francis II, whom he considered the ablest, his sole successor, violating the rules of primogeniture. This severed the already difficult relations with the estates of the duchy, which fought the ducal practice of growing indebtedness.
The general church visitation of 1581, prompted by Francis II, showed poor results as to the knowledge, practice and behaviour of many pastors. Baringius was held responsible for these grievances and replaced by Gerhard Sagittarius in 1582. Finally in 1585, after consultations with his brother Prince-Archbishop Henry, Francis II decreed a constitution (Niedersächsische Kirchenordnung; Lower Saxon Church Order), authored by Lübeck's Superintendent Andreas Pouchenius the Elder, for the Lutheran church of Saxe-Lauenburg. It constituted the Lutheran state church of Saxe-Lauenburg, with a general superintendent (as of 1592) and consistory seated in the city of Lauenburg, which merged into that of Schleswig-Holstein in 1877. Francis II's attempts in 1585 and 1586 to merge Hadeln's Lutheran church body with that in the rest of the duchy were unanimously rejected by Hadeln's clergy and estates.
The violation of the primogeniture, however, gave grounds for the estates to perceive the upcoming duke Francis II as illegitimate. This forced him into negotiations, which ended on 16 December 1585 with the constitutional act of the "Eternal Union" (German: Ewige Union) of the representatives of Saxe-Lauenburg's nobility (Ritterschaft, i.e. knighthood) and other subjects (Landschaft), mostly from the cities of Lauenburg upon Elbe and Ratzeburg, then altogether constituted as the estates of the duchy (Ritter-und-Landschaft), led by the Land Marshal, a hereditary office held by the family von Bülow. Francis II accepted their establishment as a permanent institution with a crucial say in government matters. In return, Ritter-und-Landschaft accepted Francis II as legitimate, and rendered him homage as duke in 1586.
The relations between Ritter-und-Landschaft and the duke improved since Francis II redeemed ducal pawns with money he had earned as imperial commander. After the residential castle in Lauenburg upon Elbe (started in 1180–1182 by Duke Bernard I) had burnt down in 1616, Francis II moved the capital to Neuhaus upon Elbe.
In 1619, Duke Augustus moved Saxe-Lauenburg's capital from Neuhaus upon Elbe to Ratzeburg, where it remained since. During the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), Augustus always remained neutral, however, billeting and alimenting foreign troops marching through posed a heavy burden onto the ducal subjects. Augustus was succeeded by his elder half-brother Julius Henry in 1656. He had converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism in expectation of becoming appointed Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück in 1615, but guaranteed to leave the Lutheran state church and the Lower Saxon Church Order untouched.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Saxe-Lauenburg”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.